United Airlines resumes US flights after temporary grounding on tech issue

United Airlines Holdings Inc. suffered a temporary grounding of its aircraft nationwide due to an unspecified equipment outage, but the airline resumed flights at US airports after less than half an hour.   

The Chicago-based carrier requested the grounding for its main operation and subsidiaries on Tuesday after its aircraft were unable to contact flight dispatchers using normal means, according to a posting on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. 

The FAA confirmed in an email to Bloomberg the airline had asked it to pause departures nationwide, but declined further comment.

Spokespeople for United didn’t provide an explanation for the outage other than saying in a tweet it had experienced “a systemwide technology issue.” It later tweeted the ground hold had been lifted. 

United shares pared a drop of as much as 4.7% to trade down 3.2% to $48.15 as of 2:11 p.m. in New York. 

The problem occurred eight months after an FAA system outage forced a nationwide grounding of aircraft, triggering renewed scrutiny from members of Congress and aviation industry leaders over the resiliency of systems running the nation’s flight operations. The FAA shutdown in January delayed more than 10,000 trips. 

United suffered a company-wide technology outage in January 2022 that led to delays on some flights.